own life and the life of her family. She states nice people are the most dangerous because they get inside of her and they could hurt her badly when she least expected it. She has shown she will protect those she loves, no matter the cost to herself, as shown when she volunteers for the Games to save her little sister Prim, when she shields Gale to keep him from being whipped (even when it means a lash for herself), and when she stoically decides during her second Games to die to save Peeta. Because the majority of her time before the Games was spent keeping herself and her family alive, she does not understand many social cues and is often ignorant of other people's emotions, such as when she doesn't recognize Gale's hints at his growing affection for her, or when she fails to realize that she and Madge Undersee are actually close friends. She has no experience with romance or love other than that of her family and doesn't believe she wants it. She never actually understands Peeta was telling the truth when he declared his love for her in the pre-game interview until after the games itself. She also has large trust issues and does not trust anyone. She plans never to be married nor have children that would grow up subject to the Reaping. She quickly adapts to the "kill or be killed" philosophy of the games and coldly considers how she will kill her fellow competitors during the first Games, at one point rationalizing she is already a killer due to her hunting experience, though she is briefly disturbed after her first direct kill, Marvel. By the end of the first Games, she is prepared to shoot Cato and attempts to do so only to be interrupted by Peeta being attacked by the mutations. Despite her cold-bloodedness, she is nonetheless extremely relieved at not having to kill her allies Rue and Peeta. As the series progresses, however, she becomes increasingly cold-blooded, to the point where she objectively discusses how to kill everyone (but Peeta) involved in her second Hunger Games in Catching Fire (though she ultimately has to kill only one combatant), and by the third novel is depicted killing an unarmed female civilian during a mission, with apparent remorse. In Catching Fire, Katniss struggles to understand Panem's political issues as she has had very